Need Help/Advice... *Long*

**Sound of Silence** · 12-24-2000, 12:43 AM

Well, after a couple of months of planning I seem to be nearing the home stretch of designing/building this MP3 Player. Currently this is my setup:

AIWA CDC-Z106 with auxillary input
P150-P200 CPU with motherboard (haven't decided whether to use home PC or to buy a cheap motherboard/cpu combo)
32 MB Ram
30 gig Quantum hard drive, 3.5 inch
IRMan Infrared receiver
Credit Card Size Remote
SB16 Sound Card
DLink 10/100 Network Card
Arise 865V DC-DC Power Supply
4x40 LCD screen that connects to parallel port

I'm planning on running the Cobra 1 software. I have a couple of questions:

1) Will the 865V Arise power supply be able to support this kind of system?

2) Will a plexiglass case be ok to house this in? How cheap will plexiglass be?

3) Is WinME/WinMELite the best OS to be running on this machine to make boot time the least?

4) Does hibernation mode work ok on WinME? Can I have my player use this as "off" so it doesnt take long to boot up?

5) Does anyone use any kind of shutdown controller like www.mp3ondemand.com has? I'm looking for something that can actually stay on for X number of minutes after the car has been turned off.

6) What kind of connections to the car does the power supply make? I've got a friend who knows how to install a CD/Stereo system in a car, is it the same type of connections -- basically will he be able to do it?

7) Will having the network card initialize add a lot of time to my boot time? Any way to avoid this but still have network support at certain times (without having to open up the case and fiddle around)?

8) What type of wire/cable do I need to run from my SB16 Line Out to my CD players Auxillary In? Will it give me crisp/clear sound quality?

9) What has everyone done for stabilization of their case? Has there been any final word on horizontal/vertical mounting of the hard drive? Will wrapping it in the bubble plastic shipping stuff lower the shock effectively?

11) If I end up buying a motherboard/cpu combo off of Ebay, what is the minimum that can run this setup effectively? Also, what features should I look for in the bios that might minimize boot time?

12) Is this thing gonna blow up in my face?

I know its long, but I'm oh-so-close... Just trying to make sure everything will be in working order.

**DodgeCummins** · 12-24-2000, 09:06 AM

I for one look at all the sections so I have seen this post before.

You ask some good questions that everyone wants to know, but there are different answers for different people.

I would suggest going to the
http://www.webring.org/cgi-bin/webring?ring=mp3car;list

Mp3 Car Webring, and look at all the different installs. Some of those people also post here.

The final answer is that what I think is good you may not like. I have been experimenting with my laptop until I get what I like then that will be the permanent setup.

There was a long discussion on the powersupply question, different opinions...all I know is that my laptop draws 80Watts. A desktop with bigger stuff will draw more.

Questions 2 depends on you.

Questions 3 and 4 folks are trying to figure out now...I probably will go ME but haven't tried it in the car.

#5 http://www.dschmidt.com/autooff.html

The only power your car has is GND (ground, negative) and 12Volts positive. The power supply input has the same two. You need a fuse where you get the power (10 amp fuse = 120 watts)

Boot time has been discussed.

The better the wire, the longer it will last, and the less RFI it will pick up.

#9 Many opinions

#10 no #10

#11 My laptop is P233 64megs of ram, runs moving map gps stuff and plays mp3s with no skipping and 40x4 LCD output...that is all the power I need.

#12 This is an experiment. You will have the first one in your neighborhood, if not the city. If you want to go the easy route, then buy a premade one, or wait a few years till the big car stereo makers start selling them.

OR, just take notes, experiment, see what you like, and enjoy the fact you are building cutting edge technology into your car.

I do mine for the practicality of having thousands of songs at my disposal, and to say I did it myself.

I haven't blown anything up yet, but I have been careful...doublechecked everything, and kept careful notes.

Enjoy the hobby

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http://www.geocities.com/mr_bubba_zanetti/

**Aaron Cake** · 12-27-2000, 10:37 AM

1) Will the 865V Arise power supply be able to support this kind of system?

Yes. Pay attention to the lack of a POWER GOOD line. Some MBs won't boot without it.

2) Will a plexiglass case be ok to house this in? How cheap will plexiglass be?

Yes. I payed $9.99 for enough Lexan to build my case, but I bought mine surplus.

3) Is WinME/WinMELite the best OS to be running on this machine to make boot time the least?

Nope. Win95 stripped to the bare essentials will boot just as fast and take up less HD space.

4) Does hibernation mode work ok on WinME? Can I have my player use this as "off" so it doesnt take long to boot up?

Hibernation may or may not work. Depends on your hardware. Yes, you can use it to turn the player off. That's the point.

5) Does anyone use any kind of shutdown controller like www.mp3ondemand.com has? I'm looking for something that can actually stay on for X number of minutes after the car has been turned off.

I didn't use one. I just have a "Shut Down" button on my keypad and a manual power switch. By far, this is the most flexible method.

6) What kind of connections to the car does the power supply make? I've got a friend who knows how to install a CD/Stereo system in a car, is it the same type of connections -- basically will he be able to do it?

You can go to the cig. lighter, direct to the battery or to another power source (acc line, ig. line, etc.). Your stereo friend will be able to do it.

7) Will having the network card initialize add a lot of time to my boot time? Any way to avoid this but still have network support at certain times (without having to open up the case and fiddle around)?

No, but you will have to remove TCP/IP, or configure it for a static IP address.

8) What type of wire/cable do I need to run from my SB16 Line Out to my CD players Auxillary In? Will it give me crisp/clear sound quality?

Depends on the CD player. Standard cable is a stereo RCA to Phone cable. The only thing to worry about for quality is that phone plugs will work loose over time in an auto environment. You will probably want to use hot glue to keep them in place.

9) What has everyone done for stabilization of their case? Has there been any final word on horizontal/vertical mounting of the hard drive? Will wrapping it in the bubble plastic shipping stuff lower the shock effectively?

I have mine mounted on four springs. Seems to work fine, and my suspension is STIFF. In my opinion, verticle mounting is better as it prevents the head from slapping the disk sufrace. Other's opinions will vary. Bubble wrap won't so a lot of the case is already shock protected.

11) If I end up buying a motherboard/cpu combo off of Ebay, what is the minimum that can run this setup effectively? Also, what features should I look for in the bios that might minimize boot time?

A 200 is a good compromise between performance and cost, but anything over 75 will work fine.

BIOS Features:
-ability to disable autodetect of HDs
-ability to disable boot from floppy
-ability to disable extended checking of RAM
-ability to disable peripherals you don't need

12) Is this thing gonna blow up in my face?

Probably not, but it may catch fire and destroy the car :-)

I know its long, but I'm oh-so-close... Just trying to make sure everything will be in working order.

Next time, search the board for the answeres so I don't have to type so much :-)

------------------
Aaron Cake
London, Ontario, Canada

Player: Cyrix 200, 32MB RAM, 10.2Gig Quantum HD, Onboard EtherNet/Sound/Video, Custom Lexan Case, Arise DC-DC, Win95 Kernal w/Custom Player
Car: '86 Mazda RX-7 w/Basic Performance Upgrades